Taiwan Tieguanyin Heavy-Roast Oolong Tea

You know, as I started hammering out this review, it occurred to me that if I could manage to get at least one or two backlogged reviews posted each day for the next month, I would be all caught up by the first of August. I have no clue if I can manage that with demands on my time being what they are, but I’m going to try to get all caught up on my reviews by the start of the fall semester at the very latest. I finished a sample pouch of this tea around halfway through May. I recall trying this and another roasted Taiwanese Tieguanyin back-to-back and ended up being impressed by both. I especially appreciated this tea’s complexity and depth.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 17 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of wood, char, cinnamon, raisin, and banana. The rinse brought out a roasted peanut aroma as well as stronger aromas of wood and char. The first infusion then introduced aromas of cream and vanilla. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cinnamon, cream, dark wood, char, raisin, and caramelized banana backed by butter, pine smoke, and spruce tip impressions. Subsequent infusions saw the nose steadily become creamier, grainier, sugary, and more buttery. Stronger butter, pine smoke, and spruce tip notes appeared in the mouth alongside new flavors of minerals, plum, toasted rice, coffee, roasted barley, malt, and brown sugar. Notes of vanilla, raisin, and roasted peanut belatedly appeared, and I was just barely able to detect some hints of nutmeg as well. The final infusions offered mineral, dark wood, pine smoke, char, and cream notes backed by subtler impressions of roasted barley, toasted rice, malt, and raisin.

Though I have only found one or two dark roasted Tieguanyin oolongs that truly disappointed me, this was still among the better ones I have tried. It displayed great body and texture in the mouth to go along with tremendous depth, complexity, and longevity. I loved what the roast brought to the table, and I was even more impressed by the fact that it did not overpower the tea’s subtler qualities. An impressive offering all around, I think fans of heavier roasted oolongs would find a lot to like about this tea.